Category: Male/Male Romance

This Week Is Hectic!

Posted on by karennacolcroft

This is a hectic week, but hectic in a good way.

Thursday is the official release day for A Fighting Chance! I put this book up for Kindle preorder on April 26, and on May 9 it will release for Kindle and paperback.

I’ve been making some tweaks to my release schedule going forward. Take Some Tahini (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 6) will release in July as scheduled; after that, my next release will be in October of this year. I’ve discovered, in trying to do 6 releases this year, that that pace isn’t exactly sustainable for me, especially since I’ll also be releasing some young adult fiction (under my Jo Ramsey pen name) starting in 2025. So I’m lowering that plan by one book for 2024, and will be releasing five books instead of six, and for 2025 I’m planning four releases. There might be an extra short story or two released over those couple of years, but I’m not currently *planning* those. So another part of the hecticness of this week is rearranging my release schedule and, by extension, my writing and editing schedule.

And I’m getting ready to take a trip to watch my younger kid graduate from veterinary school next week! Packing and coordinating travel plans with the others who are going is one of the most hectic things, but it is so amazingly worth it to watch my kid’s dream–almost literally a lifelong dream, they’ve wanted to be a veterinarian since they were about three years old–come true.

So that’s where I’m at this week. I’m also continuing to plan “wide” releases of my books (making them available through retailers in addition to Amazon) but have hit a minor snag with some of the existing books that is delaying getting those put out through other vendors. I am continuing to work on it.

Available for Preorder!

Posted on by karennacolcroft

A Fighting Chance (Chance Met 2) is now available for Kindle preorder! The book will release on May 9 in Kindle and paperback formats, and will be available through Kindle Unlimited.

This is a sequel to Chance Met, which was released in March 2023. I had hoped to have A Fighting Chance out in March of this year, but chose to spend additional time having it beta read and proofed, and then did some rewrites. But it is ready now, and you can preorder your Kindle copy on Amazon.

New Project Underway

Posted on by karennacolcroft

After going back and forth with myself about it, last Tuesday I started a new book.

Bring On the Broccoli (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 7) picks up about three months after Tempeh for Two and Take Some Tahini (both of those books take place in the same month). It’s in Kyle Slidell’s point of view and involves discovering that some alphas, including a Massachusetts one, are even less ethical and invested in their packs’ best interests than previously realized.

I haven’t gotten very far into the story yet, so there isn’t much to share at this point, but I’ll add updates here weekly until the book is done. Bring On the Broccoli is planned to release in January 2025.

A Fighting Chance Cover Reveal

Posted on by karennacolcroft

Now that my newsletter subscribers have had the first look, I wanted to share the cover of A Fighting Chance with y’all. A Fighting Chance is the sequel to last year’s Chance Met, continuing the story of werewolf single father Trey Damone, psychic human Jeremiah Crawford, and Trey’s seven-year-old son Michael. A Fighting Chance will be available for Kindle preorder on April 25 and will release for Kindle and in paperback on May 9; I have plans to release it and Chance Met wide later this year.

I’m Moving!

Posted on by karennacolcroft

In three days, I’m moving to a new apartment. This is a good thing; the new place is larger, quieter, and in a much safer area than where I’m currently living.

But it is putting a bit of a cramp in my writing and promoting. Especially since in TWO days, Hooch and Howls officially releases!

I’m looking forward to being in the new apartment and having quiet, sunlit space to write and create. Moving is stressful, but it ultimately ends up being a good thing. I’ll share pictures of the new space once we’re settled a bit!

Meanwhile, Hooch and Howls is available for preorder through various retailers, and will release on Thursday (the 14th) in digital and paperback formats. https://books2read.com/hoochandhowls

Hooch and Howls Preorder Is Up!

Posted on by karennacolcroft

On Leap Day, I put my historical M/M/M novella up for preorder! Hooch and Howls was originally published in 2012. When I looked through it with an eye toward rereleasing, I came across one scene that completely made me cringe. The original concept of the story was that the werewolf, Malachi Powers, was affected overly strongly by even the smell of alcohol, with the result that he joined in on sex with two humans without their consent. As originally written, consent was given retroactively (the humans said they were fine with what had happened), but given that I wanted Malachi to be a *heroic* character since he appears in the next Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat novel and is being spun off into his own novel and possibly series, I couldn’t leave that scene as written.

So for the rerelease, I did some major rewrites of that scene. While Malachi is still affected by the fumes of the hooch the humans spill, and he is admittedly spying on them when they start their sexual encounter, he quickly realizes he shouldn’t be there. And the humans *explicitly* call to him and invite him to join them before he does anything.

The rest of the book has been revised and re-edited, and it will be released wide on March 14 in digital versions. I’m also doing a paperback version of it because I like having physical books. You can find your retailer and preorder your copy at my universal book link. And here’s the cover!

Tiny Book

Posted on by karennacolcroft

As previously announced, on March 14, I will be rereleasing my novella Hooch and Howls. This is a historical M/M/M novella, set against the backdrop of the rumrunning trade in 1930 Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. I’ve done some heavy rewrites on part of the story, and some minor revising and re-editing on the rest.

Because this is a novella, not a novel, I was planning to release it only in digital formats. But… I like having *physical* copies of my books. I’ve tried reading on Kindle (and I’ve had three different kinds of Kindle devices over the years), and it makes my eyes do weird things. Plus I can’t flip back and forth through the pages, and…well, I like holding a book, not an electronic device, in my hands.

So I’m considering–strongly–doing a paperback version of Hooch and Howls as well. I’m sure some people wouldn’t want it, and that’s fine, but *I* want it. I want to have a physical copy of the book to hold in my hands.

Do you prefer ebooks or physical books? Or do you have a preference?

March Release Update

Posted on by karennacolcroft

For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to update my release plans for this year. I think I’ve got it…

Originally, I was going to only release one book this spring, an April release, which was planned to be a novel called A Fighting Chance. This is a a sequel to Chance Met, which I released in March 2023.

Meanwhile, I’d also decided that I wanted to rerelease my previously-published novella, Hooch and Howls. And I was trying to figure out *how* to rerelease that; did I want to make it part of my main release schedule, or did I want to make it a giveaway, or… ? A couple of weeks ago, I decided I wanted to make it part of the main release schedule, because it’s now a lead-in to two other novels that are coming out this year.

So I’d changed from planning an April release to planning releases in March and May. The question was, which book was I going to release in which month? Since Chance Met was a March release last year, I wanted A Fighting Chance to be this year’s March release. But A Fighting Chance is turning out to need a bit more editing than I’d anticipated, and I also ran into a scheduling snag with my beta reader. I want to make sure I’m giving readers the best story I can with A Fighting Chance, so I’ve decided to give myself more time to prepare and polish it.

So on March 14, I will be releasing Hooch and Howls. A Fighting Chance will be out on May 9. The current plan is for both books to be released wide on these release dates, meaning they will *not* be available through Kindle Unlimited (but will be available for Kindle).

Hooch and Howls is a historical novella originally published in 2012. Taking place in 1930, Hooch and Howls introduces “hermit” werewolf Malachi Powers as he finds unexpected sexual and romantic connection with two human smugglers, Roger and Jonathan, who are reluctantly involved in the rumrunning trade between Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and Gloucester, Massachusetts.

I’ll be sharing cover art soon! Meanwhile, here’s a picture of the cottage that once (until around 1984 or 1985) belonged to my grandparents. In Hooch and Howls, this cottage is where Malachi lives.

I Have a Migraine…

Posted on by karennacolcroft

I was going to write something profound-ish, or at least interesting, but I have a migraine and can’t think about anything other than the funny jagged colors dancing in front of my eyes. So instead, I’m sharing this picture  of all of the books I’ve self-published, as Karenna Colcroft and under other names, since May 2021. Lex Valentine did the covers for Salad on the Side, Alpha Receptor, and Messages from Shiva vol. 1; I did the others.

 

2023 In Review

Posted on by karennacolcroft

2023 has been over for just past a week now. Last week, I talked a little about what I have planned for 2024. Now I want to take some time to celebrate what I did in 2023.

I released two Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat novels. Even though the original plan was to release three, that didn’t work out, but I did release two. And I’m proud of myself for that.

I changed my release schedule when life stuff got in the way of what I’d originally planned. This is definitely cause for celebration, because in the past, if I’ve said I was going to do something, I’ve felt like I had no choice about doing it. Even when it wasn’t possible to actually follow through. In 2023, the book I’d slated for a March release took longer to revise and rewrite than I’d anticipated, especially since I wound up almost doubling the length of what had originally been a novella. Expanding the story took time, and I was trying to do it while in the thick of dealing with the fallout from my mother’s passing and my father’s health issues, among other things. Instead of forcing myself to stick to the release schedule I’d set and risking putting out a shoddy product, I chose to delay the March release by a couple of weeks, which then resulted in delaying the May release (which would have been Try the Tofu, Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 4) to July, the September release to October, and not planning to have a November release at all. I felt a little guilty about that, and also dealt with some “people will forget I exist if I don’t release books often enough” fears, but ultimately it turned out to be the right choice, both for my books and for my mental health. And I did end up having a late November release with my Christmas short “Snow on Christmas Eve.”

I wrote two novels. Fill the Empty Spaces was started in December 2022, but I wrote the bulk of it in early 2023. I also wrote Take Some Tahini (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 6)… and then rewrote the first few chapters of it. I also wrote a few short stories and started a new novel, Ebb and Flow at the end of November. (Ebb and Flow is a spin-off from Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat, and will probably be released in fall 2024.)

In addition to the two Real Werewolves novels, I released two other novels and a short story (or short novella, depending on how you look at it).

I dealt with family issues, health issues, and life issues, including one that knocked me for a severe loop at the beginning of December 2023. I’m still dealing with that one, but I’m doing much better than I was at first.

Like I mentioned last week, I have plans for 2024, and hopefully this time next year, I’ll be celebrating a lot more!